funeral march

History

Historical origins

The custom of accompanying the solemn funeral procession with instrumental music was already present in ancient civilizations in various forms. Both the Greeks and the Etruscans usually employed flute players or, the latter, zither players, as can be deduced for example from the Chiusi cippi illustrated in Pericle Ducati's work. Among the Romans, the traditional funeral (funus translaticium) involved the presence of musicians at the opening of the procession: two cornicini, four tibicini and a lituus, a special trumpet with a soft sound that was well suited to the circumstances. There is sculptural evidence of this ritual in a funerary bas-relief from Amiternum.

17th century

The genesis of the funeral march dates back to the seventeenth century. Originally it belongs to the group of solemn processional marches, military and non-military, and was intended only for practical use in the funerals of illustrious figures. However, already in 1674 Jean-Baptiste Lully used his Pompe funèbre in his opera Alceste.

Other ancient funeral marches, however intended for their own use, are the marches taken from Purcell 's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary (1694), composed for the funeral of Mary II of England (5 March 1695), and the March to the Dauphin's Funeral Home written for Maria Anna of Bavaria and attributed to Philidor the Elder around 1690.

18th century

The eighteenth century was relatively scarce with funeral marches, both in military repertoires and in the works of great composers, but it still produced notable examples and, above all, freed the genre from its ceremonial function.

If in the early years of the century Philidor still composed a Marche funèbre pour le convoi du Roy (1715) for the solemn funeral of Louis XIV, twenty years later we remember the Dead marches written by Handel for the Saul oratorios (1738) and Samson (1742). The first is identified in England with the funeral march par excellence and remained in use in funerals until the twentieth century.

The rituals of Freemasonry contributed to the development of the genre at the end of the century. An early example is Giroust 's cantata Le déluge (1784), composed to commemorate a free-mason of the Paris lodge. Even Mozart 's Maurerische Trauermusik (1785), an original composition that combines the cantus firmus with a march and presents various characteristics similar to those of the funeral march, is dedicated to the memory of two Freemasons. This famous Trauermusik is preceded by a Kleiner Trauermarsch (1784) which seems to anticipate its content.

The French Revolution replaced the Requiem Mass with the funeral procession with its triumph being the procession to the Pantheon as for Rouseau in 1994, in what used to be the Roman Catholic church of Sainte-Genevieve in Paris. It is at this moment that the funeral march established itself to the detriment of the requiem as a secular model of funeral music, intended as much for witnesses of civil virtue as for military heroes. Civil celebrations become an essential moment of the new religion of reason, inspiring hymns and other compositions suitable for various occasions, including funerals.

The lacerating Lugubrious March composed by Francois-Joseph Gossec to celebrate the victims of an anti-royalist uprising on 20 September 1790 known as the Nancy affair which marked a decisive turning point. Performed on the Champ de Mars in memory of the fallen soldiers, it aroused great emotion and sets the standard for the nineteenth-century funeral march. The piece was repeated at Mirabeau 's solemn funeral on 4 April 1791. On this occasion, the use of the large drum was particularly striking, appearing for the first time in a musical composition and marking the procession with a sense of fatality. The Italians Cherubini and Paisiello also composed funeral marches for the death of General Hoche in 1797 after he had spilled a lot of blood during the Revolution.

19th century

Beethoven's Eroica funeral march is one of the first great works of its kind.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Beethoven adhered to the ideals of the Revolution and borrowed the theme of heroic death from the composers of the revolutionary era, from which he drew inspiration in several works destined to reverberate their influence on the work of romantic. The Funeral March on the Death of a Hero (1800-1801) which is the third movement of the Piano Sonata no. 12, one of the most popular of the century, would have a notable influence on Chopin in particular.

Beethoven was looking for the "new musical paths" (Neue Bahnen) mentioned in one of his letters to Krumpholz of 1802. In this period the maestro from Bonn frequented the funeral march genre several times: for example, the fifth of the Six Variations in F major for piano op. 34 (1799).

But what is of greatest importance is the second movement of the Eroica (1802-1804) which, in addition to innovating the very way of conceiving the central slow tempo of the symphony form, definitively frees the funeral march from functionality to practical use, drawing from it a pure concert piece. The funeral march of the Eroica was not very suitable for use in processions, unlike that of the Sonata n. 12, which remains the only movement of his own sonata orchestrated by Beethoven and which was performed at the composer's funeral on 29 March 1827.

However, alongside the Beethovenian epic genre, different other tendencies emerge. The funeral march that opens the finale of the second act in Rossini's Gazza ladra (1819) (Infelice, sventurata) is renowned throughout the nineteenth century and heralds a new turning point in the evolution of the genre, introducing a previously unknown melodic lyricism. The fifth of Schubert 's Six grandes marches en trio (1824) is in the same vein though it is not indicated by the author as a funeral march but so called in his obituaries and in a piano transcription by Liszt.

In terms of instrumentation, after the first decades of the century the orchestral workforce expanded. Percussions other than timpani, which had so much weight in band performances at the time of the Revolution, also made their debut in the orchestra: in the 1840s, those percussions were fully integrated in the compositions of Berlioz, Donizetti, Wagner.

20th century

After a golden age of funeral marches in the nineteenth century, the musical genre also thrived in the twentieth century: examples can be found among others in Britten, Kodály or Sibelius. There are various rearrangements of older masterpieces and especially of Chopin's funeral march. Saint-Saëns drew from it, for example, an arrangement for two pianos (1907), while Satie in his Embryons desséchés (1913) joked about it with a series of trivializing melodic and harmonic devices.

In particular, the funeral marches stand out in the production of Shostakovich, whose entire work is permeated by death, of which he is a constant witness in the collective tragedies of Russian history of the 20th century. The composer made his debut in the genre at the age of eleven with a piano piece dedicated to the fallen of the October Revolution (1917), transcribed a work by Schubert (1920) and then left numerous other examples, including the adagio In memoriam of the Symphony no. 15 (1957).

The obsessive theme of death deepens and is placed in special relief in his late production. Heartbreaking given the circumstances of his composition is the funeral march included in String Quartet No. 15 (1974), completed in hospital and entirely permeated by the idea of death, in «a disconsolate and tragic farewell to life» of the author now at the end of his existence.

In many places until the 20th century, the processions of Holy Week did not tolerate bands as instruments were banned from liturgy during Lent, there these processions were made in silence as it is still the case in many places, such as in the Procession of Silence in San Luis Potosi. However, with the continuous attraction of crowds, bands have been helpful to cover the noise and keep a pious atmosphere around the solemn moments. Thus, during Holy Week in Leon in 1959, a great novelty occurs: for the first time, a band of bugles and drums belonging entirely to a brotherhood and parades in a tunic accompanying the images of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord.

The composition of the funeral march La Madrugá on Holy Tuesday 1987, April 14, marks a before and after processional music for the specific genre of Lenten funeral marches. It has since been performed in all the concert programs of Holy Week in Seville. Likewise, the Music Bands incorporate it into their processional routes, spreading it throughout Andalusia. With Abel Moreno moved to Madrid, its nationwide dissemination became unstoppable, becoming a reference not only for Spanish Holy Week, but for the entire world. The mutual enrichment and recognition between classical and popular "band" funeral marches was reached with this composition which go "in crescendo" until the explosion of the final tutti, allowing it to share programs with the "Passion" Symphony by J. Haydn and the Requiem by W. A. Mozart.

Analysis

Form

The original structure of the funeral march repeats that of the Lullian military march in two repetitions of eight measures each. Subsequently, the genre evolved towards the form of the march with a ternary structure. The modern military march provides a ternary structure: the march itself is followed by a trio at the end of which the march starts again from the beginning. This pattern or a variant of it is usually used in the funeral march.

However, while other types of marches do not differ essentially from the ordinary model, the funeral march has characteristics that instantly distinguish it from other compositions. Mendelssohn, who for the fifth volume of hisSongs without Words composed a piece which overall did not correspond to the form of the funeral march, had his publishers title it Trauermarsch simply because of the characteristics of the first bars. The Lied was then instrumented by Moscheles and performed at Mendelssohn's funeral (7 November 1847).

Tempo and meter

Funeral marches are typically solemn marches, very slow in tempo (lento and adagio and similar tempos), in binary or quaternary measures of sad and regular progress. The time signature can be generic or specified by the composer via a metronome signature. In all cases there are several possible interpretations of the funeral march time. In fact, if the metronome is indicated, the speed of execution can vary from 44-48 bpm for Liszt's funeral marches to 92 of that contained in Symphony no. 1 of Ries. Beethoven himself indicates a tempo of 80 bpm to the quaver for the Eroica funeral march, although it is normally played slower. It is possible that the influences of national military traditions weighed on the choice of composers: the Austrian one, for example, prescribed the more pressing pace typical of the marches of the grenadiers and riflemen.

The military manuals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries do not expressly set the funeral march tempo, but suggest that it is at most that of the ordinary pace, and if possible slower. This is provided in particular by the regulations of the New York State Militia (1858), which allowed the ordinary step only when the distance to the place of burial was considerable (article 319). The modern military standard tends to halve the common march time and perform the funeral march at 60 bpm. However, the funeral pace is the slowest of the marching steps and is therefore located at the extreme limit opposite to the quickstep time.

Rhythm

The typical rhythm of the funeral march is dotted. The note following that episode normally lasts a quarter of the movement to which it belongs, but in some compositions it is reduced to an eighth (as in the second movement of the Eroica and in Grieg's Funeral March in memory of Rikard Nordraak (1866), where short notes are dusk notes). Czerny codified the rhythm of solemn, parade and funeral marches in the following two ways:https://upload.wikimedia.org/score/e/y/ey2k22xfz1i0wa9kojxoilisr0cjp56/ey2k22xf.png

Mode

The funeral marches are mostly written in the minor mode, but the rule suffers from illustrious exceptions: for example, Handel's funeral marches are in the major mode. The melodic line is short and dark, and often resorts to the repetition of notes. An ascending minor third interval can characterize the main theme.

In the form established in the 19th century, the piece includes a trio in a major mode, often written in the parallel key, in the relative key, or in that of the subdominant of the latter. This section can represent a pitiful episode, or a consolatory one, or a heroic one, or at times (as in the specific case of Chopin's masterpiece) of complex interpretation, or it may want to sublimate death into a positive mystery.

Instruments

Funeral marches are usually performed by wind ensembles, which allow greater sound power in open spaces, as required by funeral ceremonies and processions. The reasons for the predilection for aerophones, however, are not merely practical, but also symbolic: in this sense, they derive from the biblical association between death and wind instruments such as the flute and the trumpet.

The use of drums (possibly muted), of military origin, is also normal. When, at the beginning of the 19th century, the use of these instruments in the orchestra was not common, the composer made up for it with strings in the low registers: they simulate percussion by exploiting the ear's difficulty in recognizing the pitch of low sounds, which seem almost indeterminate. Even the piano, as a struck string instrument, can easily imitate the drum.

Idiophones are prized for their ability to reproduce the sound of death knells.

Genres

Funeral music

In terms of content, the funeral march belongs to the more generic funeral music, which includes expressive forms other than the march, some of which are entrusted to singing. Another of these forms is the requiem, which falls within the context of liturgical music.[64] In the United States, the contamination of the European and African traditions of the military band and the spiritual has given rise to the tradition of the jazz funeral, typical of New Orleans, in which a brass band accompanies the funeral with hymns and funeral songs in marching time.

Lenten and Holy Week processions

Funeral marches found their most common and regular expression in the Passiontide processions of the Spanish and Italian religious tradition which were propagated to Latin America especially Peru and Guatemala and all of Christianity. In southern Italy, popular funeral marches are still enormous successful, and musical bands perform entire repertoires of them in the long demonstrations of Holy Week.

Parody

The unmistakability of its characteristics and the possibility of exploiting its stereotypes makes the funeral march a genre that lends itself well to parodic and joking use, to the point of the grotesque.

In addition to Mahler's first symphony, where the parody takes on a ghostly tone, we find a famous example in Gounod's Funeral March for a Marionette (1872), which became famous in the 1950s and 1960s as the theme song for Alfred Hitchcock's television series. Charles-Valentin Alkan's Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot (1858), a surreal composition for wind instruments and choir is another classic of the genre: it mocks the funeral marches of Rossini, Gossec and Beethoven.The joking Italian title of Mozart's Kleiner Trauermarsch has led to suspicions of a self-parody of his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 16, but the opinion is not sufficiently shared.

The French humorist Alphonse Allais "wrote" a Marche funèbre composée pour les funérailles d'un grand homme sourd (Funeral March for a Great Deaf Man), a completely blank score bearing the tempo Lento rigolando (inspired by the colloquial verb rigoler, "to joke").

Répertoire

Classical funeral marches

The Marche funèbre second movement of Charles-Valentin Alkan's Symphony for Solo Piano, Op. 39, No. 5.

Alkan's "Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot" for four-part chorus, three oboes, and bassoon.

The second movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (Eroica): Marcia funebre: Adagio assai.

The third movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12: Maestoso andante, marcia funebre sulla morte d'un eroe

Funeral March No.1, formerly attributed to Beethoven (WoO Anhang 13), believed to be by Johann Heinrich Walch, played annually at the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph, Whitehall, and played during possession in British State Funerals.

The Funeral March for the Final Scene of Hamlet by Hector Berlioz.

Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale by Hector Berlioz (Op. 15, 1840), a symphony for military band in three movements.

The eighth variation from Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10: Variation 8: Funeral March.

Marche funèbre for piano written by Frédéric Chopin in 1837, which became the 3rd movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35.

Chopin's Marche funèbre for piano in C minor, Op. posth. 72, No. 2.

The second movement of Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet, Op. 44

The second movement of Ferdinand David's Concertino for Trombone and Orchestra: Marcia funebre (Andante).

Funeral marches for bands

An exhaustive list of the countless band funeral marches composed between the 19th and 20th centuries is practically impossible. Only the most famous can be mentioned.

Ah! Sì, versate lacrime (anonimo)

A Desirè (A.La Vela)

Mater dolorosa (Mariano Bartolucci)

Eterno pianto (Ernesto Becucci)

Cristo alla colonna (Giuseppe Bellisario)

Marcia funebre (Meindart Boekel)

Grido di dolore (Amleto Cardone)

Dolore senza lacrime (Cimaglia)

Mesti rintocchi (Cimaglia)

Pax (Luigi Cirenei)

Sconforto (Curri)

Ultimo saluto (De Cintio)

Alla memoria del gran re (Fabiani)

Rimembranze (Garofalo)

Lacrime (Giammarinaro)

A catanisa (Giappesi)

Addio per sempre (Giappesi)

Pace eterna (Ippolito)

Nenia funebre (Lombardo)

In memoria di Giacomo Puccini (Manente)

Afflitta (Orsomando)

Funeral marches in films

"Cortege funèbre" by Darius Milhaud in Espoir (1945)

"Marcia funebre" by Carlo Rustichelli in Divorzio all'italiana (1961)

"Funeral Music" by Zbigniew Preisner in Three Colours: Blue (1993)

"Prima e dopo" by Ennio Morricone in Baarìa (2009)